Data Collection Technique & Importance of Customer Feedback

Say, you want to launch a smartwatch under your own brand but are unsure if the watch will be accepted in the market since over a dozen other smartwatches have already captured the market and are even ruling it. It is natural to feel nervous under such circumstances, with so much competition around and your brand being a novice.

But then, if you don’t take the leap of faith and put your product out there in the market, you would never find out if your creation would be welcomed by the public or not. However, it would also be imbecile to introduce a product in the market without any prior research and basic groundwork.

Before you put your smartwatch out there in the thick of the market, it is imperative to explore business strategies and marketing techniques, analyze the market condition, position, and sentiment, observe if there is a demand for your product in the market, and determine a reasonable cost of your product, gauge what is it in your product that the people need, etc.

This is just so you know if the public is ready for what you are offering. And to gauge this, it would be advisable for you to conduct customer feedback surveys, usability tests, exploratory customer interviews, social media platform interactions and on-site activities.

Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is information shared by customers about their experience with a service or product. The purpose of feedback is to reveal the level of satisfaction of customers with a particular product or service if the product/service is a success with the customers, and for the company/ organization/brand creator to understand where they are lacking and where there is room for improvement.  Feedback helps in the following ways:

a) Improves Product/Service Quality: The most genuine critique comes from a consumer. If you want to know whether your product or service is subpar, average, or superior, you must ask your customer. Their feedback will tell you exactly what to do. A one-of-its-kind survey system, Trackbee, assists you by providing your business with the service of a Customer Advisory Panel where consumers can share their opinions about your product positive or negative - so that you can make informed changes and better your services.

b) Measures Customer Satisfaction: Any business aiming for success also aims for customer satisfaction. If you give your customer the best of quality and keep them happy, your business shall definitely grow. TrackBee recognizes the important role of the customers in a business and so, has a dedicated section for Customer Experience Management, where customer feedback is noted and dealt with sincerely.

c) Shows Customers’ Opinions are Valued: Regularly connecting with consumers, heeding their complaints, noting their feedback, and graciously accepting their compliments make them feel that the company values them and their opinions to improve services and better the business. This also makes customers more attached to the company.

Trackbee is incredible in maintaining a cordial business-consumer bond. The digital solutions company recognizes the customers’ views by interpreting their responses in surveys, in turn helping businesses to achieve credibility and loyalty from their customers.

d) Creates Best Customer Experience: As mentioned earlier, customer feedback helps recognize shortcomings and presents an opportunity to improve flaws. Trackbee heeds the customer attentively in order to present them with the best experience because compromising on quality and giving less importance to customers is something that Trackbee is bad at.

e) Helps Improve Customer Retention: Customers’ views and opinion about your brand helps with a reality check. Feedback helps make informed decisions and correct mistakes associated with business, and in turn, ensures customer retention. Trackbee constantly and consistently endeavours to satisfy its clients and customers alike.

f) Acts as a Review to Other Consumers: Customer feedback is one of the most reliable sources of information for other consumers. People, more often than not, do not rely on commercials but believe in what their contemporaries think about a particular product or service. Especially now, with the social media boom, everyone is able to vocalize their experiences and opinions openly and is a great platform to share views on several subjects. Imagine, your business could reach lives globally, if only your customers are content with you. Trackbee always prioritises its existing customers. They are its assets and so being at their disposal is something that TrackBee strives to do at all times. This helps TrackBee serve two purposes. One, strengthen its relationship with the existing clients and win new ones because of good word of mouth.

g) Helps take Better Business Decisions: The data received from customer feedback helps a company in taking valuable, constructive business decisions. Recommendations, opinions, and reviews of customers/consumers, lead to improvements in products and services, leading to the company doing much better business. Trackbee resolutely heeds consumers’ views and opinions and redesigns business keeping in mind what they want.

How to Ask for Customer Feedback?

There are a number of ways to collect feedback from your customers. It could be online or offline or in-person. Social media platforms are a great way of collecting feedback. Customer contact forms, emails, on-site activities, feedback windows on the website, telephonic conversations and/or in-person meetings are some other ways of collecting customer feedback.

a) Survey responses: The views of the respondents collected by field enumerators about an existing/upcoming service/product goes on to show how necessary it is for the people and how much demand it holds in the market. Survey responses help in mounding businesses in a more customer-centric way.

b) Reviews: Reviews help in understanding the psychology of customers. A review is nothing, but the experience shared by a customer. It is a first-hand report, reflecting the true sentiments of a consumer after using a particular product or service. Good reviews should of course be celebrated, but poor reviews should also be taken in stride to better customer experience.

c) Focus groups: Focus groups are one effective way of getting feedback from customers. A focus group is essentially an interactive group, set up for customers to comfortably speak their hearts out about the experience they had while using an article, commodity, or service.

d) Customer Support (Call/Chat): This is another powerful method of customer feedback collection. Having a reliable, call or chat customer support facility available is a good way of establishing an interactive connection with customers and bridging the gap between a business and its consumers.

Defining Goals

Business goals should always be relevant, attainable, and specific, and must come from a place of direction and motivation. A survey is a good way of defining these goals. But what are the characteristics of a good survey?

a) Ask Less, Know More: Try and keep the survey as short, concise, comprehensive, target-oriented, and precise as possible. Long forms tend to bore respondents, who eventually may choose to not answer questions attentively or at all. Good survey questions lead to actionable feedback. Striking a balance between open-ended and closed-ended is also important while avoiding any irrelevant, complex questions.

b) Offering Incentives: Coupon codes, discounts, gift vouchers, etc., can be used as incentives to get people to take surveys. Not everyone will be interested in answering questions for your cause, so a token in return for their time in taking a survey for your business needs would be a good idea.

c) Evaluating Feedback Forms: All the feedback forms collected after a survey must be checked, tested and evaluated before making any strategic alterations or taking an actionable decision.